CARLSBAD: Excavation work gets going at Sage Creek school site

Workers have finished most of the grading work for Carlsbad's
Sage Creek High School and will start digging this week to install
underground utilities, school officials said this week.

The structural frames for the school buildings are expected to
be in place by December and the plan is to have the campus finished
by April 2013, said Eric Reuter, construction manager with the
Carlsbad Unified School District.

A short extension of Cannon Road and the sidewalk along it also
have been finished.

The district recently hired San Diego-based Barnhart-Balfour
Beatty to build the school buildings for $68 million at the 57-acre
site near the intersection of College Boulevard and Cannon Road. In
total, the district has budgeted $104 million for the project,
which includes the price of construction and other costs such as
legal and architectural fees.

The high school is one of the two remaining projects to be paid
for with money from Proposition P, the $198 million
school-construction measure voters passed in 2006. The other is $86
million worth of renovation work and construction at Carlsbad High
School. That work is also underway and expected to be finished in
2013.

Reuter gave the update on the projects at a school board meeting
Wednesday.

District officials plan to open Sage Creek in 2013 with only
freshmen and sophomores, adding a freshman class each year until it
reaches as many as 1,500 students in grades nine through 12.

Originally, they expected to have the campus finished in 2011,
but work was delayed because of environmental concerns.

District officials have recommended the school be a
comprehensive high school with a focus on science, math, technology
and engineering. It will be open to students who live throughout
the district.